Fusion vs Nehalem
As previously reported, AMD plans to launch the Swift CPU (aka Fusion) in the second half of 2008. Now we know for sure that Swift is going to be exclusively oriented towards notebooks and mobile devices. However, AMD does not want to limit the Fusion architecture to the mobile world and at some point in 2010, a Fusion CPU+GPU is scheduled to hit the desktop market as well.
As related to notebooks, Intel announced that their Nehalem CPUs for notebooks and desktops will be commercialized in early 2009, but mainstream products based on the Nehalem CPU won’t be available until Q4 2009. We assume Intel has some problems with the memory controller integrated directly on the dye and the 45 nm architecture and this could be causing the delay for the mainstream market.
AMD, on the other hand, seems to have a good plan introducing the Fusion chips for notebooks first and foremost. The mobile market will clearly benefit from such a chip as a CPU with an integrated GPU will be cheaper to produce, though the process is a bit more complicated.
To sustain this point, Dave Orton, ATI’s former CEO, claimed a while ago that the integration of two or more chips significantly cuts costs. Apparently, a current Northbridge chip coupled with a cheap discrete graphics card is more expensive than an all-in-one Fusion chip that integrates a Northbridge with a GPU. From the manufacturer point of view, that is.
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